Sure, the urge to talk to your loved ones after they’ve passed away is natural. But when one family start ed getting replies to texts sent to the mother and grandmother who died three years ago at age 58, they weren’t so happy to be hearing from beyond the grave. [More]

Back in the dark days when we were all wandering lost and disconsolate on the the Earth, you know, right before the dawn of the Internet, it made perfect sense to link up computers through the phone lines, and hence, pay the phone companies for service (followed by what felt like hours listening to the phone dialing up a connection). But times have changed, as they always do, and it seems phone companies as high-speed Internet providers are on the way out. [More]

Cincinnati Bell hates phone books and recently asked Ohio to let them kill their White Pages. Ohio’s Public Utilities Commission, also haters of the ever-wasteful and often useless White Pages, agreed. Now Cincinnati residents won’t get a phone book unless they specially request one. We’re no fans of the White Pages, but the deal isn’t as consumer-friendly as it looks.

Wow, those iPhones really are amazing. Chris’ iPhone can make a call from Nicaragua the same time it’s incurring a data roaming charge in Mexico—all without leaving Chris’ side in the U.S. Some skeptics will probably just say there’s a problem with AT&T’s records, or the phone’s SIM card was cloned or something, but AT&T believes. That’s why they want Chris to pay that bill each month it keeps happening.

Verizon and AT&T have jumped head-first into the shallow end of the social networking pool. The companies will charge consumers up to $35 per year to access unpopular social networking sites, a feature they’re respectively billing as “SocialLife” and “My Communities.” Not part of your social life or your community: Facebook.

Listen Vonage, Garry isn’t your customer anymore. You need to stop sending him bills and let him go. Sure, he liked you back in 2004, but he found a better company at a cheaper price and he’s moved on. Billing his AmEx every single month for two years after he canceled? Not cute. Sending his account to collections when his AmEx finally expired? Seems desperate. Please Vonage, get over Garry and move on with your life.

Yesterday, the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee “reached a tentative agreement… with the Bush administration that would give telephone carriers legal immunity for any role they played in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program.” The senators who have been reviewing classified documents related to the phone companies’ participation in the program are now saying that they believe the companies “acted in good faith” and “that they should not be punished through civil litigation for their roles.”

After being fined millions of dollars for engaging in “misleading marketing practices”, AT&T is taking advantage of “new rules that allow California phone companies to unilaterally change certain regulatory provisions without prior approval from state officials.” What? Who the hell decided to let them do that?! AT&T will be ignoring the disclosure agreement, which forced them to reveal to new customers its cheapest service first and to seek permission before making marketing pitches, because…